How I Turned My Basement Into A Botanical Dye Studio

I dream of one day having a dedicated, year-round dye studio. A bright, open space where everything I need is in one place. But for now, I make magic where I am, getting creative with what I have.

Usually, I do all my dyeing outside, hauling water from my kitchen or using the garden hose, but when it’s cold out, that’s not an option. I spent some time this month setting up a studio in my basement, spread out over a few rooms to make it work.

There’s an open space with a large window in the corner of the basement that we’ve turned into a studio. Right now, pots & baskets of dye materials are hauled between rooms & the garage, & the table is cleared between projects. It means I dye & sew in batches, with weeks devoted to one or the other. We have plans to switch it up a bit this summer, to add in more storage, worktops & a designated desk for computer work that my husband & I will share.

There’s no sink in here, but there’s thankfully a bathroom beside it where I can fill a water bottle to pour into the vats. The plan is to switch out the faucet & sink for one I can fill vats in directly, but for now, this works. The standing shower is perfect for storing & draining vats, the curtain rod repurposed for drying garments.

We have a front-load washer on the other side of the basement, which works for spinning out the fabrics after they’re done steeping, but unfortunately not for scouring. Again, this is something we’d love to switch out, since I could also do the tannin & mordant in there, but for now I’m grateful for what we do have—including sweet friends that are down to let me spend an evening at their apartment using their machine to scour.

It’s not perfect, but nothing really ever is. It’s been such a lesson in starting where I’m at & making the best of it, learning as I go. I’m proud of how beautiful I’ve made this space, & so excited to share what I’ve been creating down here with you soon. I’ll be at Market Collective April 10-12, & there’ll be a new collection of OOAK treasures online May 1st!